Various methods for temporarily straightening curly or wavy hair are well known. One method often employed by professional hair stylists includes the use of a brush to slowly pull wet hair straight while blow drying the hair straight. Typically a hair stylist will do this by first grasping a portion of the customer's hair near the scalp with a typical hair styling brush and slowly pulling the hair through the brush while simultaneously blow drying the hair. The hair is grasped by first placing the brush's bristles in the hair and then giving the brush a slight twist in order to secure the hair within the bristles. The process is repeated over various portions of the customer's hair until the desired straightening effect has been achieved.
Such a technique has certain drawbacks. First, while a professional hair stylist's technique of grasping a customer's hair with a simple twist of a styling brush can look effortless, in practice it is a fairly difficult skill for a typical person to master. Often the person trying to grasp another's hair by such a technique will grasp the hair too securely in the brush and pull the hair unnecessarily. Furthermore, while the technique is difficult to master on another's hair, it can be almost impossible to do on one's own hair. Even a professional hair stylist can have difficulty using this technique to straighten his or her own hair.
Another drawback to such a technique is that a portion of the hair must remain grasped by the twisted hair brush for the method to be effective. Consequently, the inch or two of hair most distal from the scalp can be difficult to straighten by this technique.